The invention relates to a floor mop comprising two mop supporting wings which carry an absorbent mop layer and are hinge-connected to a mop handle and comprising a squeezing slider which is displaceable along the mop handle and has two rigid squeezing arms whose ends can each be brought into engagement with a guide surface on the back side of the respectively assigned mop supporting wings.
Floor mops comprising two mop supporting wings which can be hinged towards one another to squeeze out the mop layer, also known as a butterfly floor mop, are known in various designs. In the floor mops according to U.S. Pat. No. 5,483,720 and International Patent Application PCT/US95/10759, a sleeve displaceable along the mop handle is connected via a guide rod to two clamps pivotally supported on the supporting centerpiece, which on displacement of the sleeve, slide along on the back side of the two mop supporting wings and thereby press these together. In this case, the mop handle must however be rigidly connect to the supporting centerpiece. As a result of this rigid connection, the possible usage of the floor mop is limited because only a specific oblique position of the mop handle with respect to the mop supporting wings is predetermined in their working position.
In another known floor mop of the genre specified initially, the ends of the squeezing arms connected rigidly to the squeezing slider are each connected rigidly via a guide rod to the back side of each mop supporting wing. When the squeezing slider on the mop handle is displaced downwards, the two guide rods act as hinged props which press the two mop supporting wings towards one another in order to squeeze out the mop layer located therebetween. In this case also, the angular position of the mop handle with respect to the mop supporting wings is predetermined in the working position so that the possible usage is limited.
In a known floor mop (U.S. Pat. No. 5,625,918) the mop handle is rigidly connected to a supporting centerpiece of an essentially triangular carrier plate whose two side sections form hinged mop supporting wings. For squeezing out there is hinged downwards a wire bracket which acts on the two mop supporting wings via two squeezing rollers. The attainable squeezing forces are thus only relatively small. The mop carrier has a projecting corner on its front side and can thus only be guided along a straight floor boundary with one of its oblique side edges.
In another known floor mop (U.S. Pat. No. 3,224,025) the mop handle is hinge-connected to the two mop supporting wings which are directly pivotally connected one to the other. The squeezing slider consists of a sleeve which is displaceable along the mop handle and is longitudinally slotted in its lower section, into which the two mop supporting wings are inserted in the folded-together state. The two sleeve sections separated one from the other by the longitudinal slot each act via a roller on a guide surface on the back side of the respectively assigned mop supporting wing. As a result of the direct hinged connection of the two mop supporting wings and the small mutual spacing of the two rollers, the squeezing process is very difficult, at least at the beginning. In this case also, the mop supporting surface has a projecting corner on its front side so that it can only be moved along a straight floor boundary with oblique side edges.
In known floor mops (German Patent Document DE 42 22 948 A1) the mop supporting wings are rectangular-shaped. The water level in the cleaning bucket required to rinse out the mop must thus be selected at least so that the rectangular mop supporting wings, which for ergonomic reasons are usually inserted obliquely into the cleaning bucket, are completely immersed in the cleaning water. In the case of rectangular mop supporting wings, this minimum level of the cleaning water is relatively high so that a relatively large quantity of water must be provided in the cleaning bucket so that the cleaning bucket is heavy.
The maximum force needed to squeeze out the mop is substantially determined by the pivoting moment at the end of the pivoting movement required to pivot the mop supporting wings. Here the surface areas furthest away from the pivot axis make the largest contribution to the squeezing moment since these surface areas furthest away therefrom each act with the largest lever arm. Thus, lever transmissions must be provided at the squeezing devices in order to apply the required squeezing moment at the end of the squeezing movement.